Speaking Volumes 2024
Join Pongo in creating a world where every verse echoes with understanding and every heart can find healing.
Pongo was founded on the knowledge that poetry writing provides a vessel for healing from the most devastating of traumas. The bedrock of Pongo’s work are poetry and self-expression, and its through those elements that we cultivate youth resilience. Using the Pongo method – our trauma-informed poetry facilitation technique – we engage young people in creative expression to process their pasts and imagine brighter futures. Through Pongo, youth feel seen, heard, and affirmed, deriving relief from their traumatic experiences and unlocking their future potential in the process. Speaking Volumes 2024 is your opportunity to join us in making that vision a reality.
Consider donating to our poetry programming, that supports the mental and emotional well-being of young people.
About Speaking Volumes 2024
Thursday, October 10, 2024
7:00pm PSTVirtual Broadcast
On Thursday October 10th, Pongo will host Speaking Volumes, our fifth annual fall fundraising celebration. We are proud to be hosting Mateo Acuña, the former Seattle Youth Poet Laureate & Auburn’s current Poet Laureate, as our guest of honor.
Mateo will be featured throughout the evening, sharing selections of his incredible poetry, and participating in a moderated conversation. The event will also feature the voices of our youth writers, stories of impact from across our 29-year history, and opportunities to support the systems-impacted young people we serve.
All ticket and donation proceeds will fuel our healing poetry programming serving incarcerated and systems-involved youth.
To purchase titles authored by our guest of honor visit our friends at the Elliott Bay Book Company.
More About Our Guest of Honor
MATEO ACUÑA BIOGRAPHY
Mateo Acuña is a Peruvian-American multimedia artist, composer, and creative writer best known for their poetry. They are the 2024-2026 Auburn Poet Laureate, and previously served as the Seattle Youth Poet Laureate from 2023-2024. At twenty, they are the youngest poet laureate of the five in Auburn’s history, as well as the first who identifies as transgender, gay, and/or a person of color. Using their platform to advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion is a crucial part of what they do as a creative, not only in their programming as Auburn Poet Laureate but in their writing as well. You can find a sample of their poetry on Auburn’s website. In June 2024, Mateo released Dear Spanish, his debut collection of poetry. In the same month, their twenty-minute debut opera Blood Dawn of the Inti Sun premiered at Tagney Jones Hall. You can sign up for Mateo’s newsletter, where they send monthly news about upcoming programs, performances and publications here.
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